A CHILD OF SORROW
Chapter I
VACATION DAYS
Those who already awaited the coming of vacation days with keen anticipation could undoubtedly better understand and imagine what delights Lucio had in entertaining the thought of spending his vacation with his friend out in the province, just as soon as he had received his sheepskin diploma from the Provincial High School, and laid up his dust-covered books on the shelves in order to resume the happy role of youthful life.
In one of the rural and sequestered plains of Central Luzon, called the Fertile Valley, where the rice-fields yielded the cup of joy to the industrious farmers, and where the harvest filled aplenty the barns of the poor, there lived simple, homely people, free from the rush and stir of city life.
It was during one Friday morning in the month of April when the sampaguita began to open its buds to receive the soothing dew of the starry evening hour, which diffused fragrance and sweetness all around; it was when the dama-de-noche, that charming and most fragrant native flower, profusely embalmed the atmosphere at the magic touch of the night which gave it perfume and life,—it was in such springtime, merry and
